Facebook News Updates

Facebook Watch Changing Programming – Facebook watch is currently only available in the US, and Facebook hasn’t been pushing advertisers towards the Watch mid-roll ads. In a new announcement they have cut 2/3 of their content, suggesting they need to rethink their strategy.
Facebook Cracks Down on Companies Selling Fake Followers, Likes and Accounts – Facebook launched lawsuits against a number of companies selling fake likes, followers and accounts, which may scare others off and reduce fake accounts on the platform.
Facebook Launches New Group Features – Facebook makes it easier for people to manage groups and rolls out mentorship across groups.
New Remove Message Feature – If you accidentally send a message that you want to take back you can now use the “remove message” feature to recall something you posted to a message – even a group.
Businesses can Respond to Instagram Messages on Facebook – Last month Facebook announced integrations across platforms and now users can respond to Instagram messages on Facebook, making central management easier.
Facebook US Allows Household Income Targeting – US advertisers can now target by US Household Income brackets.

Instagram News Updates

Instagram Rolls out In-App Business Profiles – These look similar to Google Business Profiles, and showcase relevant information on businesses (hours, phone number, etc.) to make it easier for people to connect with business information.
Instagram Announces Donations Sticker in Stories – This will roll out later in the year but will allow people to donate directly from a story.
IGTV Previews added into Feed – Instagram TV has been off to a slow start. In an effort to drive more views of IGTV (presumably) they are now showing previews in the main feed. It will be interesting to see how this drives more views of IGTV content.

Twitter Results – Twitter revenues are up (more than expected) due to strong advertising revenues, but the monthly active user numbers have dropped even more than they were expected to.
Twitter Cuts Access to Spammy Apps – Twitter has removed API access to apps that rapidly follow and unfollow accounts and encourage other spammy behavior in an effort to make the platform more relevant.

Revenue up but New Users Flat – Snapchat results reports show that revenue and revenue per user are up, but the platform isn’t growing users – user numbers are flat.

Pinterest Launches New Shopping Features – Pinterest announced a number of new features to make shopping from Pins even easier for users. Features like shop by brand, catalog and personal recommendations shows Pinterest aims to be your shopping platform.

Linkedin Launches New Pages Features – These include content suggestions (see what your audience is most interested in), advanced analytics (finally) and a Pages Toolkit with guides.
New Groups Features – LinkedIn launched a number of new features as they aim to grow groups. The new features include notifications, seeing more groups content in the newsfeed, cover photos and new admin tools.
LinkedIn Debuts LinkedIn Live – It is limited in users and may open up to more beta users soon. This matches the push from LinkedIn towards video (and copying Facebook).
LinkedIn Reaches 610 Million Users – Growth continues to be strong.

Google adds Offers Carousel for Business Profiles – You can now add a carousel of recent offers to your Google Business listing to make your business more attractive to searchers.
Business Owners can Reply to Reviews on Google Maps Desktop – Google is making it easier for businesses to manage and reply to reviews. YAY!
Google Recommends Sticking to the Basics on SEO – It is about the basics – not new trends.

Google Introduces Shoppable Ads from Images – In a new ad unit users can shop directly from interactive image ads. These ads will show in image search results and display “sponsored”.
Google Results – Revenue up 22% shows continued strong advertising growth driven by YouTube which is aiming to gain share of the performance marketing budgets.
Digital ad Spend will Surpass Traditional – It is finally here – digital spending will surpass traditional led by Google and Facebook. It may be worth checking how your spending measures up to industry averages.

Amazon Launches Reward Portal – Amazon will now make it easier for businesses to reward loyal customers. For example you can send an amazon product to people who listed to your podcast or completed another action and Amazon will handle the logistics.
Google says Site Speed should be a Going Priority – This should not be a surprise, but if your site isn’t fast, fix it!!!
Reddit Has a 3 Billion Valuation and Rivals Google and Facebook – Marketers don’t often think about Reddit but it is big and growing with a highly engaged user base. If you want to learn more about how to use Reddit check out this guide.